I Do What I Want

It's been over half a year since I posted anything here, and yet I've gotten more traffic in that time than ever. I have no idea who's reading this blog or why - my guess is a bunch of search engine robots get lost on their way to more important websites. But on the off chance there are actual humans reading this, I figured I should put something new up.

 I don't think anybody actually cares to read a personal blog from me. I haven't done anything worthy of garnering people's curiosity about my life. What do people want to read then? WHO CARES I DO WHAT I WANT! HERE'S A FEW THOUGHTS ON DRAGON'S DOGMA!



I've been playing Dragon's Dogma for xbox 360. The thing that particularly grabbed me when I started playing it was the character creator.

It's pretty thorough - they have all sorts of body types, skin tones, hair styles, face structures, etc. This isn't anything special, but what I find particularly interesting is that the game does not care what combination of parts you use. Male characters can have feminine faces and hairstyles, female characters can have beards. You can make fatties and giants and small children. The game really doesn't give a fuck what your character looks like and I think that's awesome. One player can have a stereotypical brooding white boy hero while another can have a little black girl, and another can have what seems to be a transsexual hero, and the game treats all of them the same. The fact that the game doesn't react to those visual choices (other than NPCs referring to your characters as 'hes' or 'shes') means that it thinks any type of person can be a hero, regardless of what you look like. That's pretty rad. Name me the last game that lets you play as a little black girl with a mohawk that didn't comment on it mechanically. Most games would change your stats depending on these factors. I mean, Skyrim divides its races very cleanly by giving them each unique stats and abilities. It too is saying that anyone can be a hero, but it is also saying that appearances and capabilities are directly related. Fucked up, right? Maybe I'm reading a bit too into it, but I found it refreshing to be able to make a non-typical looking hero and have her be just as capable of saving the day as all those generic dudes.